Charlotte Elliott wrote Just As I Am in 1835, some years after a fever at thirty-two permanently damaged her health. She had been a wealthy Englishwoman living in relative comfort. She spent the rest of her long life in pain and disability, bedridden much of the time. In that bedridden state, she wrote Just As I Am in 1835.
The hymn is profoundly simple: Just as I am, without one plea. There is no elaborate theology here, no cosmic justification for grace. Just the bare petition of a woman who cannot fix herself and has stopped trying. Without wading through the law / come as I am / without a thought.
Elliott knew that a theology of works would destroy her. She had no works to offer. She had only pain and time and failure. What the hymn articulates is that this is enough for God to accept her. The cross has already paid the price. She simply has to come. The hymn became the invitation hymn of Billy Graham's crusades, sung as people rose to respond to grace. But it was written by one woman in one bed, who knew exactly how worthless she was and how complete God's welcome was anyway.